The Conjuring Review: Dolled Up Horror Pushes the Envelope

Director James Wan is on quite a roll and his latest, teased in this chiling The Conjuring trailer, should only add to his rising Hollywood stock. The man behind Saw and Insidious has returned with a horror flick that is based in truth.

The Warrens are a supernatural spirit-fighting couple who have a long-documented history of ridding spirits and demons from people’s lives. What is teased in The Conjuring trailer is just one of their “adventures,” and it follows a couple with small children (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) who have moved into a house that they could not be more thrilled about. You know where this is going, don’t you?

But, you would be wrong. The Conjuring goes beyond the standard horror fare and even puts a new spin on the stale haunted house subgenre.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are the Warrens in The Conjuring and our story takes place in the 1970s where the schlock of the era’s fashions is only surpassed by the shock of this utterly terrifying tale.

They are summoned to Livingston and Taylor’s house when they find, behind a boarded up wall, an unexpected basement that seems fine, except for a doll that their daughter has an (unfortunate) attachment to. The scares come slowly but surely until our petrified parents call in the experts.

Wilson and Farmiga make a terrific team, both in crafting characters that are compelling, but also in bringing the couple to life who are joined by their love of each other and also helping those in need who are suffering from the supernatural.

What Wan has done with The Conjuring is craft a story that effervescently builds with excitement, shock and awe until its terrifying conclusion. Not only has he made a film that will delight longtime (and picky) horror films hungry for something original, but movie fans of all facets of what Hollywood produces can experience the film and truly appreciate its uncanny ability to build tension and terror until jaws are dropped and knuckles are red from gripping that movie theater armrest.

Our The Conjuring review can state that there are few times when attending a horror movie results in a satisfying blend of bombastic scares and sizzling drama. This film does both, and so much more. At the least, it is further cementing Wan’s status as the go-to director for wildly original horror fare. At the most, the director has produced a vision that creates a movie-going experience that broadens his genre’s appeal to the masses.